Maiden ton for Coetzer - Scot on a high as Kaitak batsmen make amends

Scotland cricket captain Kyle Coetzer hit his maiden century in the Twenty20 format as City Kaitak beat Hong Kong Island United by 26 runs in the KPMG Hong Kong T20 Blitz at Mission Road.Coetzer hit 100 off 65 balls, with three sixes and 14 fours, as Kaitak made an imposing 195 for four off their 20 overs.England's Ravi Bopara contributed an unbeaten 48 off 30 deliveries and Hong Kong's Anshuman Rath hit 35 as Kaitak made up for their tentative batting performance in the opening-day defeat by Hung Hom JD Jaguars."I'm very proud to score a century," said the 33-year-old Coetzer, who had a high score of 87 in last year's tournament."I was on 99 for a while and missed five or six balls, but I was really happy that I could make my first T20 century in Hong Kong."Dutchman Ryan ten Doeschate was United's most successful bowler with three wickets for 42 runs. Pakistani ace Mohammad Irfan gave away 34 runs in his four overs.City Kaitak needed the victory to stay in contention for a place in the final. Last year's runners-up are now looking forward to their final two matches."We are just taking it one match at a time," said Rath. "We are happy with our score and the way we bowled. We are confident we have the players to do the job."In the day's other match, defending champions Kowloon Cantons opened their campaign with a 31-run victory over Galaxy Gladiators Lantau.Cantons scored 158 in their innings, losing their 10th wicket on the final ball. With Dwayne Smith managing only 10 and captain Babar Hayat scoring 17, the Cantons struggled to make runs. New Zealander James Franklin was the pick of the Galaxy bowlers, taking three wickets for 21 runs, with Arshad Mohammad and Imran Arif grabbing two each.Things looked promising for Galaxy in their run chase, especially since they had the likes of Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara in their batting lineup. But Cantons had Pakistani ace Wahab Riaz as their spearhead bowler.Cameron Delport was out first ball of their innings and Galaxy never truly recovered. Sangakkara departed for 14 with only Pakistani Munir Dar (28) and New Zealand's Anton Devcich (26) getting more than 20 runs. Galaxy were all out for 127 runs in 19 overs with Riaz taking four for 14 in his four overs."We need to improve our batting but we were always confident with our bowlers that we would defend that total," said Hayat."The match was ours to win but we didn't bat very well," Sangakkara said.